Washington People: One S&L Crook Off Easy, Another Goes to Jail

another was told to swap his civvies for prison stripes. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Resolution Trust Corp. accepted a mere $200,000 as full settlement for bankruptcy claims against Herman K. Beebe, dubbed by regulators "the godfather of failed Texas S&Ls." The settlement amounts to exactly one penny on the dollar in comparison with the $20 million originally sought by regulators in the five-year-old Florida bankruptcy case. The FDIC and RTC charged that Mr. Beebe helped cause the failure of three Texas thrifts in the 1980s, which cost taxpayers $2 billion. "You ask for what you think you should get," said RTC spokesman Steve Katsanos of the original $20 million figure. "But after looking at tax returns and financial statements, the $200,000 was what we felt we would be able to get from the proceedings." However, James L. Adams, Mr. Beebe's attorney, said the regulators were engaged in wishful thinking. "They tried to give Mr. Beebe credit for being involved with more financial institutions than he was involved with," said Mr. Adams. "They were convinced that he had hidden assets all over the place. He didn't." A 1985 Office of the Comptroller of the Currency memo pegged Mr. Beebe as "controlling or influencing" more than 109 banks and thrifts. Mr. Beebe served nearly 10 months in prison after being convicted for making a false statement in connection with a loan in the '80s. Thomas E. Nevis did not fare quite as well as his comrade in crime. Last week, the former land developer was slapped with a seven-year federal prison sentence for failing to pay $1.8 million in restitution. Mr. Nevis was convicted in 1989 of multiple criminal charges in connection with the 1985 failure of State Federal Savings and Loan Association, Corvallis, Ore. He also pleaded guilty last week to two criminal counts in connection with his failure to pay several hundred thousand dollars in federal income taxes.

*** David C. Baer was named chief operating officer of the Farm Credit Administration last week. Before assuming his new post, Mr. Baer was the agency's chief examiner. He is replacing Dorothy Nichols, who took over last week as general counsel for the Farm Credit System Insurance Corp. In other changes at the agency, William L. Robertson was appointed as the administration's acting chief examiner, and Nancy E. Lynch was named executive assistant to Chairman Marsha Martin.